Pirate Ship Cake (Piratenkuchen Rezept)  –  This simple pirate ship cake is the highlight at all birthday parties. No need to be expert in cake decoration, anyone can make this cake!

Have you ever watch a video about cake decorating? It always blows my mind, whenever I see talented people on YouTube making those beautiful cakes and all those crazy cake creations. However, two questions came to my mind: who would normally make such cakes, and who would eat these types of cakes? I knew that I will not make such fancy cakes normally, and I am sure that most people would not too. Other than that, we are no fan of cakes with fondant. 

This is what makes this pirate ship cake special. 

• We are fans of pirate ships and stories (check out our pirate story) and most people are.
• It is so easy to make and no baking or cake decorating experience is needed. 
• It is make out of a common cake, which is trial and tested. For the base of the cake, we will be making a classic German Marble Cake. 
• No fancy decorations or any fancy baking utensils are needed. 

This cake is the highlight on every children birthday party. Do not forget to print out the pirate ship flags, following the instructions below. 

Tips on making Pirate Ship Cake

Milk: Instead of using milk, you can replace 4 tablespoons of milk with 4 tablespoons of rum. Since this is a child’s birthday cake, I will just stick to milk. 

Chocolate glaze: Melted chocolate is important in this case because it is needed to stick the gummy bears and the smarties. No one will say no to extra chocolate!

Gummy Bears: Gummy Bears represent the pirates. On every pirate ship, there is a captain! Save two of your gummy bears – one is for your captain and the second one is for your figurehead!

Smarties: Smarties represent the canons! 

Pirate ship flags: Print out the printable below!

How to make Pirate Ship Cake

1. For the base of the ship, we will make a German Marble Cake (Marmorkuchen). In a mixing bowl, mix butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs thoroughly.
2. Thereafter, add baking powder and starch powder to the all-purpose flour.
3. Through a sifter, add flour to the butter mixture and mix again. This is to prevent lumpy flour in our cake. 
4. Pour milk into the mixture and mix!
5. In a separate bowl, transfer half of the cake mixture into the clean bowl.
6. Add in the cocoa powder and 4 tablespoons of the milk into the mixing bowl with half of the cake mixture. Mix once more. 
7. Preheat the baking oven to 175 °C.
8. In a rectangular loaf tin, transfer a portion of the white cake mixture to the bottom of the loaf tin. 
9. On top of the white cake mixture, transfer a layer of the chocolate mixture. Repeat steps 8.) and 9.) until no cake batter is left. 
10. Poke a fork to the bottom of the loaf tin. Starting from the right side, dig out a portion of the batter and make a swirl. Repeat the swirling actions towards the left side of the pan. Smoothen the surface of the cake mixture and bake it for 50 – 60 minutes at 160 °C. 
11. While baking, print out the pirate ship printable. Make the pirate ship flags, a figurehead and a captain by following the instructions. 
12. After baking, take the loaf pan out of the baking oven and allow it to cool down completely. 
13. Melt the chocolate and spread it generously over the cake. Allow it to cool down for several minutes. 
14. Attach as many smarties as wish to each side of the cake. The smarties will stick to the chocolate glaze. 
15. Stick the gummy bears to the surface of the cake, leaving a gap between each bear. The captain should be in the middle of the pirate ship and the figurehead should be at the front of the ship. 
16. Allow the chocolate to dry completely and decorate the cake with the pirate ship flags. 
17. Enjoy!

You might also like

• German Apple Cake Recipe (Apfelkuchen Rezept)
• German Apple Fritters Recipe (Apfelküchlein Rezept)
• German Red Wine Cake (Rotweinkuchen Rezept)

Pirate Ship Flags Printable

Here is the printable your pirate ship cake. This printable contains a template for the flags, the captain and the figurehead. Simply cut the flags out and paste them onto a long skewer. Leave at least 2 cm of the pointy part of the skewer free, so that we can insert them into the pirate ship cake.

For the captain and the figurehead, you will need 2 toothpicks. For the captain, poke the toothpick into 1 gummy bear, leaving 5 mm above the head of the bear and about 1 cm below the bear. Paste the captain’s hat on both side of the toothpick near the head of the gummy bear.

As for the figurehead, cut the gummy bear into half and remove its “legs”. Poke the toothpick into the bear. Paste the mermaid tail of both sides below the gummy bear, leaving about 1 cm of the toothpick free.

Thereafter, stick the flags, the captain and the figurehead into your cake. This is a great activity to do it with your kids. Please do not leave little children unattended during the DIY. 

How to serve Pirate Ship Cake

Decorate the cake as creative as you want, such as having gold coins, water. Cut the cake into slices, remove the flags as necessary. Each slice should contain some smarties and the gummy bears because this is fun and special for each kid. Serve the cake with your favourite drink such as milk, tea or coffee.

How to store Pirate Ship Cake

During hot summer, I recommend storing the cake in the refrigerator because the chocolate will melt again. Simply place a cling wrap over the cake or store it in an airtight container. During the cold season, you can store the cake in a cool place, such as the cellar. The pirate ship cake can be frozen up to several months. 

Have you tried making the cake? How did it go?  Show me and tag me #chenguins on social media, so that I can see your recreation as well and share it with me in the comment section below!

Until next time & guten Appetit!

Greetings from the Black Forest,
Pia

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